Ice House for Mille Lacs.

[Eiger0304]

Looking to build a 10x20 for Mille Lacs. Looking for ideas. Steel skids or wood? Do you run your gas lines outside the house or inside? How about layouts. Only about 4 months till ice fishing.(Hopefully sooner). Any ideas would be great. Like a list of, what to do and what not to do.

Thank you

[Nordern]

My buddy and I built our own house of similar size. We welded together a steel tube frame with wheels that are mounted on stub axles attached to swing arms. We block up the house about 12" and swing up the wheels. As for gas lines everyone told us to run them outside. We tee'd off the outside lines to get gas inside to the Humphrey's, stove and heater. We went with a direct vent empire heater to avoid any problems with CO. One of the best things we did was to frame the floor out of 2X4's and filled all voids with rigid foam. You can sleep on the floor and never know you are the ice. We also put a glass storm door in addition to the steel door. During the day it really is nice to leave the door open to see what's going on outside.

Our house is going on 12 years old this season and we never has a problem with the heater or gas lines. We also went nuts and put in all the windows we could. But remember to put the windows where you can look out of them when your sitting or laying in the bunks. Good luck and if you are out of Lybacks this season stop by for a beer at the tan and green 20 footer with the 2 trucks, one red and one green. We'll be on the Graveyard.

[Eiger0304]

Not looking to put wheels on it. Going to be at a resort on the eastside. Rumor has it we are going to a 12x24 with an outdoor crapper. How about floor plans. Do you swing doors in or out? How many BTU furnance for this size house?

Thanks for the reply Norden.

[hanson]

Eiger-

My door swings out. BUT, if you have the room inside, it wouldn't be a bad idea to swing it in either.

If your house happened to go down through the ice with you in it, an inward swinging door would allow you to get out, an outward swinging door might possibly not open because of ice up against it. Just a thought.

[PierBridge]

Your not going find many or any resorts that will take 12' wide fishhouse's most will not, also if you have to move it in the future it will cause problems, 10' wide is plenty and 20' long is more then enough 22' Max. Just moving a house that size on the ice is a pain and real tough on the resorts equipment not to mention dry storage or flat bedding something that big is a hassel.

Also not sure if you have to buy all your materials or not but but if you do it is going to cost a lot of money, I would sujest buying a used house as there are many nice fishhouses for sale around the Lake.

The heater you'll need depends on how well you construct and insulate your house and how much you want to spend, a ball park estimate would be 18 to 35 btu's.

Steel frames are best and last the longest, Oak runners will work fine.

You will want lights at least two gas lights and numerous DC "battery" lights 2 or 3 big ones and it's nice to have smaller ones on each hole.

Good Luck any other questions feel free to ask.

[DCON]

I just built a 10 x 20 last winter and have it on MilleLacs. I went with steel skids, 2 x 6 flooring, rigid foam insulation in the floor, bats on the walls and ceiling. Vinyl siding, vinyl windows, 36" outswing door, tongue and groove interior, berber carpet, gas lights and recessed 12 volt lights, indoor crapper, 2 bunks and a futon couch. Drop me an E-mail and we can talk, or swing over and i can show you some pictures of the shack.

[Eiger0304]

Looks like we are going with steel skids. Got a friend that works in a steel fab shop. 2x6 floor with rigid foam floor.

Looking at both 12 volt and 110 volt. DCON or anyone else how does your vinyl siding holdup? And did you use Tyvek to help insulate. We were possibly looking at steel siding. As far as size goes, we are going out of MAC's TB. They said they have some as big as 12x34. Our in side dimension will be around 12x20. After you add the crapper and a couple of gas tank that will add a the extra couple of feet. Oh, door will probably swing out. Hanson, I thought a captain allways goes down with his ship?? LOL.

[mudman]

if you have a friend doing the skid for you get him to weld jack plates on the skids, 3 to a side, make life a lot easier. make sure there is an option for towing from both ends aswell. also have him weld on U sections to bolt the 4x4 or 6x6 or what ever you are using for a base.

[DCON]

My house is only 1 year old and the vinyl siding is holding up great, I had it moved 5 times last year, which is alot of banking and unbanking. One suggestion if you are going with vinyl, use a treated plywood ripper of at least 12" on the bottom, this will keep most of the banking on the plywood and not on the vinyl. If the banking melts and refreezes its too easy to smack it with a shovel and crack it. I only have one spot where mine cracked last year and that it where I hit it with the jack, other than that vinyl should hold up just fine. I did wrap the house after i sheathed it, I used tyvek home wrap. I thought about going with a steel siding but I would think that there would be a pretty good chance that there would be condensation forming some where on the inside of that stuff, maybe im wrong. Drop me an email we can talk houses, I live in Albertville. [email protected]

[nytelyter]

steel water pipe for the runners if you can get them with thick enough walls on them they will slide the best in all conditions